North Carolina Now Considering $50 Annual Fee/Tax on Hybrid Vehicles and $100 for Electric Vehicles

North Carolina is the latest state to join the quickly growing list of those looking to make up for shortages in gas taxes by charging electric and hybrid vehicle owners an annual fee.

In North Carolina, the Senate is considering a bill that would charge owners of pure electric vehicles an annual fee of $100. Hybrid owners, including plug-in hybrid, will be hit with a $50 annual fee if the proposal passes.

Several states have enacted a several road-use tax system and at least a handful of additional state have a bill at some stage in the political process.

We see no problem with electric and plug-in hybrid owners paying their “fair share” as most of the politicians say, but there’s no way that the shortages in road maintenance funds—which in several states is now in the hundreds of millions of dollars—will be made up for by the limited amount of electric vehicle owners paying $50 to $100 per year.

For example, North Carolina’s latest figures show 719 plug-in vehicles on the roads there. 719 times $100 equals next to nothing $71,900. Additionally, there are some 27,863 hybrids registered in North Carolina. 27,863 times $50 equals $1.39 million. Added together, the annual rake from the proposed road-use tax will bring in $1.47 million, well below the hundreds of millions in shortages.

Our point is this: politicians should stop saying this road-use tax system is needed to make up for shortfalls. It won’t make up for shortfalls for decades. It just won’t.

I’ve sent multiple letters to several NC lawmakers. Apparently the oil companies speak louder than I do. If they’re using the excuse that they need more tax money, it’s difficult to imagine NC has enough EVs to make any serious dent in their tax funding.

A 1¢ gas tax increase would raise MANY orders of magnitude more tax money than a $100/EV and $50/hybrid tax. Idiots.

An EV driven 10,000 miles annually would effectively be taxed 1 cent per mile. That’s not fair?

Let’s see … each year, I must pay $1800 of property taxes to fund our crappy public school system for my neighbor’s children. How is that fair?

Instead of pouting, how about we finally scrap all our deliberately-byzantine tax codes and replace them with simple rules that suck less. For example, no gasoline or EV tax … instead everyone pays 2 cents per mile … added to their license renewal fee … done.

What about the diesel trucks that were converted to natural gas?
What about hybrids like the Toyota highlander hybrid SUV?
What about voting in fiscally responsible members of the state senate and house and properly working on the budgeting process?

North Carolina uses Ez-pass.https://www.myncquickpass.com/en/about/rates.shtml
Why not increase the toll cost to cover the fuel tax deficit?
Repairs to all roads should come from toll road usage not just State residents.
Under their logic, out of State drivers who use the roads should get a free pass?

You have to figure that you ARE paying taxes on the electricity you use… for that car. If there are so many electric cars on the road sneaking by gas taxes, put a .001 tax on the kWh, oh but that wouldn’t be fair to all those non-electric cars users.

My question also follows that flawed thinking… if I get a 50+ MPG econo-box, how is that different from the car that gets 50+ MPGe? Why does only the PHEV get the $50 tax? They use the same road as the Honda CRX hf. On the other end, I’m betting an H2 is doing far more to the road that the 4x gas tax they pay through poor MPG.

It’s a money grab that if they’d do the math (user * tax) isn’t getting them anything but a cheap shot at those that wouldn’t vote for them anyway.

Before they penalize people for purchasing hybrid and electric vehicles, many of which cost more to purchase, earning the state more in sales tax revenue, than comparable cars. Have higher tax values, thus earning the state & local governments more in property tax. Why not go after all the people who move to NC and fail to register their vehicles here. The state and local governments would earn a lot more revenue by a) ticketing these owners; b) earning more in property tax; and c) having said vehicles insured in NC would increase revenues for insurance companies and thus more revenue for the state.

Isn’t their a law regarding license plate frames? I don’t see that being enforced. At $100/offense looks like a wasted opportunity.

Charging me more to own my car, is more incentive for me to move to SC. Lower taxes, lower insurance.